Despite 5 Primary Contests, All Eyes on Wisconsin Recall

June 5, 2012 at 12:00 AM EST

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After months of rallies, phone calls and door-knocking, Wisconsin voters went to the polls Tuesday as Republican Gov. Scott Walker hoped to avoid becoming only the third governor in U.S. history to be recalled. Gwen Ifill reports.

TRANSCRIPT

GWEN IFILL: Voters in five states cast ballots today in critical primary contests. But all eyes were on Wisconsin, and its high-stakes gubernatorial recall.

After months of rallies, phone calls, and door-knocking, Wisconsin voters finally get their say today. Republican Gov. Scott Walker was hoping to avoid becoming only the third governor in U.S. history to be recalled, his opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the same man Walker defeated in 2010. Both have spent millions of dollars in a bitter contest.

WOMAN: I voted for Scott Walker once, and I want to make sure he gets in again.

MAN: Scott Walker was elected to legislate, not to dictate.

GWEN IFILL: Voters in a handful of other states, including California, New Mexico, Montana, South Dakota and New Jersey, also cast ballots in presidential primaries, tossup congressional races, and local contests.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who clinched the GOP nomination last week, met with supporters in Texas today.

MITT ROMNEY (R): Three-and-a-half years in as president, with America in crisis, with 23 million people out of work or stopped looking for work, he hasn’t put forward a plan to get us working again. Now, I know we’re getting close to an election, so he will come out with one soon.

GWEN IFILL: President Obama hit the campaign trail to raise money in New York City yesterday, taking direct aim at his Republican foe.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And now they have got a nominee who is expressing support for an agenda that would reverse the progress we have made and take us back to the exact same policies that got us into this mess in the first place.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

GWEN IFILL: Mr. Obama was joined on the stump by his most recent Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton, who said a Romney victory would be calamitous.

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